Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Mane Pulling and Alpacas

In case you're wondering, no, they don't go together AT ALL. :)

Today was one of those days where I felt like a kid waiting for school to get out. 5 o clock just would NOT come. Especially after I decided I was going to the barn after work! I swear I should just go back to being a poor barn manager...I spend half my day thinking about horse stuff anyways! Not sure I've mentioned I'm a GIS tech at a small city - basically I handle the mapping and drawing requests from the engineering and planning departments, with a little IT type stuff thrown in. But of course the pay is fabulous and we all know horses need to be fed lots of cash!
At any rate, I got to the barn this evening and just couldn't handle Ginger's mane one more second. And after an hour of pulling and trimming and thinning I do believe it looks even worse :( I need some professional help- her mane is super thick and lies on both sides of her neck. Of course she was all fidgety and bored with the whole procedure. At one point she sort of jumped forward and I got after her a bit (verbally) so she stood there quivering playing sad sad pony. At that point I notice Lainey is also upset and finally notice there are about 10 alpacas charging towards us at a run!
Needless to say, chaos ensued - there was a lesson in progress in the outdoor ring, and horses panicking every which way. The funny part is the alpacas live on the farm, so you would think the horses would be sort of used to them. But I guess when they get loose it's a whole nuther story! They were rounded up pretty quickly but poor Ginger was sure they were still hiding somewhere waiting to get her. I'd love to see what she's thinking - do alpacas really hunt in packs and savage poor defenseless ponies? Possibly in her world, that, and much worse :)
So, the Project Mane Buster got put on hold for another night. I'm hoping to spend quite a bit of time at the barn this weekend because next week I will be away for work and going insane - I NEED my downtime, so work related trips are a special kind of hell for me.